NEW PIC's !!!

The folowing are the new dates, places and times for the new series of Public InformationCentre's (PICs):

Wednesday November 26th, 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm,
Shakespeare and District Optimist Hall

Thursday November 27th, 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm,
New Hamburg Community Centre Tuesday

December 9th, 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm,
Festival Inn, Stratford

ABC Press Release for Nov. 18, 2008

Highway 7 and 8 Corridor Study

The Agricultural Business Communities of Perth East, Perth South and Wilmot West held an information meeting at the Shakespeare Optimist Hall on Tuesday November 18 to bring the community together to discuss the consultant’s plans for Highway 7 and 8 and to prepare landowners for the next step in the planning process.

This volunteer group formed in August and works on behalf of over 300 property owners to ensure adequate input into the planning of the Highway 7 and 8 corridor. The group has two goals. We act to inform rural landowners within the study area about the planning process and we act to influence the planning process by educating the consultants about the nature of agriculture. Previous community meetings in the summer brought together 250 concerned individuals.

The three Agricultural Business Committees are disappointed that in this day and age any arm of the provincial government or consultants working on their behalf could fail so dramatically to understand agriculture as anything but a business. The Phase 1 reports showed almost complete disregard for the local economy, businesses and community resulting from highway development through agricultural lands. The draconian, inaccurate and outdated methodology used to address agriculture must be changed.

The Agricultural Business Communities documented initial concerns from the community and submitted a Questions document in early September. A disappointing response was received November 7.

On September 30 a Brief was delivered to the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) identifying several inadequacies in the Phase 1 Consultant Reports. The Brief outlined the nature of agriculture within their study area and provided an accurate understanding of the losses and costs if they proceeded with their misguided options. We have not yet received a response to the Brief.

The Consulting Team claims to be receptive to our participation in the planning process and we feel we have experienced some success influencing the study approach

We will continue to work on behalf of our community and our rural business owners until this project is finalized.